Rainy Days

The rain of the past few days is giving everything a jump start in the vegetable patch. Pumpkins are in flower and sending forth their curling tendrils.
The yellow squash is in flower and has thus far escaped the borer that devastated our crops last year.

Brussels Sprouts are happy for the cooler temperatures and becoming strong and sturdy plants in an amazing shade of light blue.

Some of the tallest Marigolds I have ever grown are nestled among the tomato plants. Their scent hits you as soon as you come within sight of the garden.

Some

days

here

are

so

breath-

takingly

beautiful

I cannot

believe

my eyes.

Despite the fact that I have about a lifetime's worth of weeding...and the rains are bringing forth yet more weeds, I somehow cannot be bothered with or stressed by the fact that I may never catch up. Days like these are wondrous here in the Valley. The temperatures are cool, you can smell new green growth in the air, and everything is covered in a fine blueish mist. There must be five colors of flowers bursting on the largest Nasturtiums I have ever seen. They are running a muck in the pumpkin patch and gourd patch.

The Birdhouse Gourds are growing before my very eyes and tomorrow I will place another support on top of this one which will let them climb to a height of six feet- which still may not be enough!

Delicate lettuces are coming in every day as the new seedlings try to gain a foothold in their peat pots. These lettuces are three year old plants and just put forth new growth every season.

Apples are coming in on the tree and are just loving all this rain. It is not unusual to spot a tawny fawn and her parents nibbling on the new fruits.

The hay is getting wet this season. The horseman is not too happy about this but the cut was timed wrong. Most of it was salvaged and the rest left uncut until we dry out. I can hardly blame the cutter, however, when for so long rain was in the forecast and did not arrive. But he took a chance and cut over the weekend and it has poured down rain- and hail- ever since.

Market beans are coming in after a very precarious start. We lost an entire seedling run and the second did not look to be faring any better. But most survived and are now putting on vigorous growth.